The session is a monthly group blogging session with the beer blogging community, hosted by a different blogger each month. This Month is the turn of Nathaniel Southwood who asks us to comment on the issue of drinking alone.
I have known people (lets call them Ms. X) who won’t meet their friends at the pub because Ms. X might get their before their friends and then would have to spend a few moments waiting for their friend. How ludicrous. I feel like picking this person up by the collar and shaking them, “you are a grownup, you are allowed in a pub with out supervision, what do you think is going to happen to you? The locals arn’t going to have you for dinner, and the miserable bloke in the corner won’t say anything against you, he probably won’t even notice you!”. Why do people think that everyone else in the pub will be judging them because they are by themselves?
As someone who doesn’t care what random strangers in the pub think, this really bother me and so I am happy to go to the pub by myself. If someone does think I’m an alcoholic, let them, it doesn’t mean that I am. I have no problem with the idea of drinking by myself. I do not myself feel under pressure to show the world that I have company, that I am able to socialise and that I need the company of others at all times when I am in public. In fact I often feel the urge to go to the pub by myself. I sometimes just want to sit by yourself with a good book, getting away from the noise of home, stress relief. I can see the appeal of quiet pub, a crackling fire, a good book, and pint of something special. What a lovely way to spend a winters evening, eh? The world going by, while you, in the comfort of an arm chair absorb a good book and a good pint. I can’t think of anything more blissful, but it is a bliss not to be shared, for me this moment would be completely spoilt if someone else was there, even a friend. Unfortunately no pubs near me fit that criteria without a considerable walk. Pitty.
Depending on the type of pub you can go out and meet new people, many bubs are very sociable and you can easily spark up a conversation at the bar with nearly any of the regualars, why not make a new friend?
Another thing that I do quite a lot is go to pubs and bars by myself which have got live music on. If I want to see a band and my friends don’t, well why would that stop me. I’m just going to be one more in the crowd, I get to see the band and no one else even knows I was there, unless I talk to them, but that’s up to you.
I suppose, in conclusion, I can understand why people don’t want to go by themselves, but I can’t square it in my head for myself. If I want to do something I just do it. What I can’t understand is why do people have to be in company if they have a drink in their hand? Does the rest of the world really look at you and make judgements? Or are you looking at the rest of the world wondering what they are all thinking about you when really they haven’t even noticed you?